Tharsis

This post is from the now defunct website “A GameDev Plays…”, copied here for posterity

I like this game, but it is hard to recommend.
Tharsis is an ambitious
attempt to create a certain feeling and stay loyal to its theme. It
succeeds, but as a result the game is super-difficult and super-dark.

In Tharsis the player controls the crew of the eponymously named ship on
its way to Mars. Midway disaster strikes - some of the crew is killed
and the ship is damaged. The objective is to survive the 10 turns
required to reach the final destination. Every turn some of the ship’s
modules develop problems and these need to be fixed or they will cause
continuing damage effects (reducing hull, injuring crew, etc). The
player assigns crew members to fix problems by rolling and applying dice
with a value greater than the difficulty number associated with it. The
key word here is “dice”. There are little computer simulated dice
rolling round the screen - apparently with physics modelling. It is
intentionally quite reminiscent of board games and I think it works
well. Using dice provides less mathematical players with an immediately
intuitive probability system - a benefit in a otherwise complex game.

Once the dice are rolled, many options exist for using them: reducing
any problems in that module; activating character special abilities;
activating module special abilities; or, putting it towards research.
Furthermore, when rolling dice in a module with a problem there are
penalties for rolling certain numbers. For instance, rolling a 4 may
result in an injury to the character, or each 2 appearing may cause
those dice to be voided and unusable. However, these negative effects
can be avoided with the use of assists - gained through character or
module special abilities. There are lots of rules to juggle, with many
choices and possibilities at each step. It can certainly feel
overwhelming at the beginning. It took me a couple of hours (equating to
several games) before I felt comfortable playing and able to plan
strategy effectively.

How many beginners players will endure long enough to reach the point of
understanding? The game’s learning hurdle is amplified by its
difficulty. This game is hard. Even easy mode will result in failure in
a good proportion of games. I’ve never reached Mars in normal mode after
many attempts, and I daren’t even try hard mode. Often defeat is just a
case of bad luck. There appears to be a large amount of randomness in
this game - be sure to have your prayers to the RNG gods ready before
starting! The problems that occur; the rolls you make, it all seem to be
random. However, problems tend to cascade, so a bit of bad luck is
usually magnified throughout the system. One set of bad rolls and it can
seem that all is lost.

Many games are RNG heavy, but this is often ameliorated by the game
length. Either they are long enough that the randomness averages out, or
short enough that it doesn’t feel as if the player’s time was wasted.
Unfortunately, Tharsis sits between these two solutions. Games last
30-60 minutes with about 20-40 rolls of the dice(tending towards the low
end as events conspire against the player). Considering the difficulty,
this is not long enough for the luck to average out. Nor is it an
insignificant period of time. Getting 30 minutes into a game and then
realising death is inevitable is not fun when it feels like the result
was dominated by randomness.

The theme of the game does not help provide good feelings. This is a
dark game. Tharsis may use bright colours and kid-friendly dice
mechanics, but it is dark and depressing when you think about what is
supposedly occurring. The characters are trapped on a fragile and broken
spaceship with little help available, hurtling towards their near
inevitable doom. No wonder they are depicted with expressions of despair
and horror. It only gets worse as one way to improve the player’s
chances is to cannibalise the dead characters - a well worn trope in
survival games. However, Tharsis goes even further, allowing the player
to kill characters in order to harvest their meat! It doesn’t even seem
worth it when reaching Mars. I have succeeded in reaching the end a few
times (once with all characters alive) and seen two of the possible
endings - neither was particularly upbeat. I applaud the developers’
dedication to their theme, but the sense of overwhelming dread does not
help enjoyment of the game.

Despite the above issues, once the basics have been mastered the game
becomes exacting, but not impossible. Sometimes characters will survive
long enough to reach Mars. It is possible to prepare in advance for
small amounts of bad luck. The numerous options provide many interesting
choices. There is great replayability, both in the core story scenario,
but also in unlocking extra characters or a myriad of various special
missions. This game is worth playing to see how well it is put together.
However, a couple of original choices (unrelentingly dark and RNG
dominated) make it difficult to consider it a great game. I enjoy the
challenge of playing Tharsis, although it is rarely a happy experience.

Tharsis is on the Steam
store at US$14.99 (or local
equivalent) for PC/Mac. It has been bundled.